'Devil May Care' Hype In Full Bloom

Last month, CommanderBond.net exclusively revealed the promotional poster for Sebastian Faulks’ upcoming James Bond novel, Devil May Care. Last week, it was revealed that the poster will go on display in over 1,000 UK public transport stations as part of an epic marketing blitz to promote the book.

Now, the official Devil May Care Myspace.com blog has updated with a fascinating look at the surprisingly complex process it took to create the poster.

According to the blog’s intrepid reporter, one Candy Goodwood, “The ad for Devil May Care had to look slick, confident and classy. No complicated messages, no clever lines – just the simple announcement that Bond is Back.”

“You’ve probably guessed by now that the poppy is a symbol from the book,” Candy continues. “It’s what gives the striking red of the cover and what had to be used to create the look we were going for. Getting poppies in February, however, is easier said than done. These particular poppies had to be specially imported from Italy. So, on the day the shoot was due to take place, Marketing Director Jane ‘Moneypenny’ Rose, Creative Director Rob Williams and Art Director Jim Stoddart, turned up at the photographer’s studio bright and early to receive the delivery of 300 poppies.”

Ultimately the flowers arrived – albeit closed. Images from the shoot can be found online at Flickr.

“After a few stamped feet / sobs / general exclamations of ‘what are we going to do?’ and ‘whose idea was this?’ it was realised that closed poppies can be manually peeled open one by one. So, that’s what they did … It took three long hours.”

“Once the poppies were ready for action they were carefully laid out with the book, as per the original drawing done by Rob Williams. Hours were spent carefully laying down different numbers of poppies to see what looked best.”

“What you’ll know if you have actually seen the advertising around, is that we didn’t in the end use the full flowers. It was the petals themselves which gave the greatest impact. So it was back to the flowers, in order to rapidly start taking them apart. One step ladder and vertigo-stricken-Jane Rose later, and petals were tumbling down over the book while the photographer tried desperately to catch them. Unfortunately the speed of falling poppies isn’t something that can be controlled, so it was a few goes before they got what they needed.”

The result is strikingly simple and beautiful. The poster wonderfully complements the novel’s artwork, which itself, took two months to complete.

Head on over to the Devil May Care Myspace.com blog for the full report.

Meanwhile, Devil May Care continues to climb the charts with eight days until its release. At Amazon.co.uk, the novel sits pretty at #14 on the charts. Waterstone’s, meanwhile, rank the book at #6 among its pre-orders.

Keep watching CommanderBond.net for all the latest Devil May Care news.